"A work realized this way needed to be able to come home to Atlanta," noted Leatrice Ellzy Wright, a Sr. Director of Programming at the Apollo Theater who also still calls South Fulton home.
"I don’t want it if it's not authentic," Ludacris said. "If it's not organic, then I don't want any parts of it. That's just who I am. And I want to feel like I earned it. And I'm [going to] be honest with y'all — today I feel like I earned it!" (And Ludacris declared that before his Fast X made $320 million worldwide; securing the second-biggest global opening weekend of the year.)
Rico Nasty and her fans know what it's like to be judged for being themselves. For anyone who feels like an outsider, Nasty Mob is a space to forget that alienation.
The Icelandic composer talks about the creative forces behind her distinctive music, her presence in the movie Tár and the "dome of energy" that fuels her country's artistic productivity.
Since 2019, Saucy Santana has been a regular presence on the social web, producing several streaming hits. But the very qualities that set him apart threatened to hold him back.
NPR's Daniel Estrin speaks with Daniel Estrin, lead singer of the band representing Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest, and Daniel Estrin, lead guitarist of the Grammy-nominated band Hoobastank.
'Wait Til I Get Over,' an homage to Jones' hometown of Hillaryville, Louisiana, paints a deeply nuanced portrait of Jones and of the Southern customs that raised him.
Peso Pluma seems to be dominating these days. He delighted audiences at Coachella, made history on The Tonight Show, and he's got hit after hit after hit on multiple music charts.
In 2016, a rift between hitmakers showed the limits of rap's tolerance for rule-breakers. As Mark Anthony Neal explains, "authentic" Black masculinity has always been a moving target in hip-hop.
A Jean-Philippe Rameau opera, left unfinished at time of his death and recently completed by a musicologist, gets its premiere 280 years later, with extravagant costumes.
Mya Byrne loved country music since her childhood in New Jersey. But it took years of searching and traveling to lead to the place where she could make her new album, Rhinestone Tomboy.